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Wow am so jealous. Always wanted (or should that be) to build a between the war race replica or the old habit of putting a period aero engine in to a period chasis.
Who did you use to make the head? How did they do it, copy of the iron head?
Would the engine develop more power if made using newer material and closer tolerances? Or is the engine unique enough to be quite close tolerance?
Congrats and I am very green eyed.
lynx
@Enigmatic
The cars are essentially modified Delahaye 135s. It is a complicated story. The stroke was shortened to reduce capacity to below 3 litres so the Delages could race in the 3 litre class leaving Delahaye to fight Bugatti and Lagonda et al for overall honours without the threat of being beaten by one of their own cars wearing another's badge.
It didn't go quite that way though. Delage led for much of the race until the exhaust manifold casting broke letting the Bugatti through for overall honours, Delage 2nd and first in class.
There were only two racing 3 litres both survive but are rarely seen in public. Neither is as it was pre war. Road going ones were also based on Delahaye 135 but are also very rare. Post war 5 single seaters were built and 4 survive. Under the bodywork they are very like the pre war cars.
My car was found in France. It was a chassis axles and engine. It is within a few numbers of the Le Mans cars and must have been one of the last ones produced before the outbreak of war. We don't know what body it had but probably a 4 door saloon. We have done what the factory would have done - taken a chassis from the production cars and built a racing car. The hard part has been trying to make it exactly as the factory racers in 1939.
Rear axle is a special competition one with a lot of alloy casting replacing cast iron. Live axle on semi elliptic leaf springs. Gear box is an MK35 Cotal. Engine is a 3 litre straight 6 almost identical dimensions to an Austin Healey 3000. Rev limit 5500. Compression 10.2:1. Arrow rods and Ross pistons. Cylinder head is aluminium - the car had a cast iron one when found we made a new one.
Front suspension is independent the design is known as System Talbot and was used by a number of cars including Talbot Lago. Shocks are Repusseau friction. Again these are unique to the 2 racers so they had to be made for my car.
Fuel tank is large and is shaped around the back axle - yes we had to make one of those.
Couple of departures from original to make it a bit user friendly on the road / legal for racing. There is a mount inside the tail so I can carry a spare wheel and there is a plumbed in fire extinguisher - HD44 Solex carbs are legendary for their fire starting abilities.
Finished weight ready to drive should be sub 900kg and top speed 130 mph+